WHAT:
The Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), held a hearing today to review a discussion draft that would reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act. H.R. __, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2018, drafted by Reps. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), will reauthorize key biodefense programs for five years.
WHY:
“This Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization is critical in protecting the lives of all Americans, and providing the necessary tools and infrastructure are in place when disaster strikes," said #SubHealth Chairman Burgess.
WHO:
* Anna Abram, Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Planning, Legislation, and Analysis, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Opening Statement )
* Robert Kadlec, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Opening Statement )
* Rear Admiral Upper Half Stephen Redd, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Opening Statement )
* M. Michelle Berrey, President and CEO, Chimerix, Inc. (Opening Statement )
* Erik Decker, Chief Security and Privacy Officer, University of Chicago Medicine (Opening Statement )
* Umair Shah, Executive Director, Harris County Public Health (Opening Statement )
KEY MOMENTS:
“As everyone here knows, this is not a question of ‘if’ we will face a threat, it is more of a question of ‘when’ we will face the threat - the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear incidents continues to grow. Every day, our adversaries are looking for more effective and faster ways to produce a threat." - Rep. Brooks
“During this Ebola outbreak, basically the secretary asked me to lead the coordination across the department, so we’ve been holding regular conversations with HHS partners, as well as other federal inter-agency partners to do two things. One is to establish whatever is needed to support the response overseas - to keep the disease over there, rather than over here. And the second one is making sure our that our capabilities domestically are prepared… So it is basically assuring that the training, the equipping, and the requirements were all up to date, in terms of if their case should show up on our soil, how would we respond?" - Dr. Kadlec
“Passion and dedication aside, it is clear that without resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) during Hurricane Harvey, our preparedness, response, and recovery efforts and impacts would have been far less robust. This was not just from the acute response phase that went into play during the event but the years of planning in advance of events such as Hurricane Harvey. In order to meet preparedness and response needs of communities such as ours, CDC and ASPR must have adequate support and authorization levels along with commensurate funding to ensure local health departments are equipped to prepare and respond to the variety of local disasters, whether natural, man-made, pandemic, bioterrorism, or otherwise." - Dr. Shah
RESOURCES:
The Majority Memorandum, witness testimony, and an archived webcast are available online HERE.
